Police Dispatch

New Trend Alert: Street Yoga

A man likely on drugs was arrested on the University of Arizona campus after being found dancing and contorting himself into odd positions while panhandling, according to a UA Police Department report.

A UA officer received word of an "unwanted person" complaint from a Circle K convenience store, just as he was driving by the store himself, near which he saw a male in a red T-shirt matching the complainant's description. Near the street by the fence of the UA Recreation Center's soccer field, the man was "moving around erratically, covering his face with his shirt and bending close to the roadway."

The officer met with the Circle K's manager, who said this subject had been asking passers-by for money in front of the store's main entrance, meanwhile "acting erratically, dancing and talking to himself"—presumably either on drugs or "having a mental-health crisis."

The cop found the red-shirted man still standing by the road and noticed, besides his unusual demeanor, he had "what appeared to be knives or utensils inside his pants," which were all the way unbuttoned.

Upon interview, the man said he was from Alabama and had been in Tucson for 10 months, not having the money to leave town. As he was talking to the cop, he continued to bend his body around awkwardly and simply said he was "doing yoga."

The man had no weapons (other than the knives in his pants), but he did have marijuana in his possession, as well as an empty syringe—which he said a friend had given him. He declared he used the syringe "to get water to drink"; asked for clarification, he amended his answer to say "he used it to have fun" but denied he injected narcotics with it.

After the reporting officer learned he already had two warrants out for his arrest, he brought him to jail. The man was forbidden from returning to the Circle K.